Welcome to the European Wasatia Graduate School for Peace and Conflict Resolution
The trilateral European Wasatia Ph.D. Programme for Peace and Conflict Resolution aims to analyse conceptions of and conditions for reconciliation in the Middle East. It refers to overarching discourses from different academic disciplines (Middle East and Political Sciences, Philosophy, Sociology, Law, Theology, Literature and Media Studies) and with regard to the German context (dealing with a dual past). Other international areas of conflict (Northern Ireland, South Africa, the Balkans) are considered relevant for initiating mutual learning processes among the Ph.D. students. The analysis of social, legal, political and (inter-)religious conditions for reconciliation is combined with learning practical dialogue skills (such as Holocaust education and Scriptural Reasoning). The aim is to train multipliers capable of fostering dialogue to address social challenges (particularily in the field of anti-Semitism) at both academic and civil society levels.
Invite to the State Representation
At the invitation of State Secretary Sandra Gerken and in the presence of Prof. Dr. Anke Wischmann, Vice President of EUF, as well as personalities from Berlin’s political, social, religious, and academic spheres (including a representative from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research – BMBF), Dr. Zeina Barakat and Prof. Dr. Ralf Wüstenberg presented findings from the work of the European Wasatia Graduate School for Peace and Conflict Resolution at the Schleswig-Holstein State Representation to the Federal Government.
The invitation to the State Representation was part of a BMBF-funded excursion that brought the twelve PhD students of the second cohort into dialogue with politicians and representatives of civil society in Berlin. Among other engagements, the group was invited twice to the Bundestag—once to engage in a discussion on Middle East issues with former Vice President of the German Bundestag Aydan Özoguz, MP, and again the following day to learn about Armin Laschet’s initiative on the Abrahamic Accords.
These visits, thematically focused on the transfer of insights from Germany’s post-1989 dealing with its second dictatorship, were complemented by meetings with key civil society actors such as the Maecenata Foundation and the Federal Foundation for the Reappraisal of the SED Dictatorship in Berlin. The program began with a visit to the Stasi Records Archive/Federal Archives in Erfurt.
